Digital Home Thoughts: WACOM Intuos3 6x8 Tablet

The Experience of Owning One
Prepare to make some room for your tablet on your table. The best setup I found (considering the fact that I am right-handed) is to have the tablet to the right of the keyboard at a slight angle. This allowed my wrist to be comfortable when I was using the tablet. If you are only planning on using this device once in a while, you can always store it somewhere. Set up takes seconds. I will go through the process with you now. Plug the USB cord in. Install the software. Yes, it is that easy. The keys are even preset with some common keys such as Ctrl and Alt and Space.

Most people will use the tablet for artistic purposes, but since it is so versatile I tried to spend a month using it as an integral part of my interaction with my computer. There are two modes for the stylus: Pen and Mouse. Outside of creative applications, the mouse mode was very handy. In this mode, a small flick of the wrist was enough to move the cursor to any corner of the screen. Dragging and dropping is a breeze with this device. The rocker button on the side of the pen allows of a right click or a double click. This is very convenient when you are too lazy to tap the tablet twice. I also set the keys on the tablet itself to start my commonly used applications. I even went as far as setting presets for Winamp and Firefox in order to make my life easier. You are probably wondering about the mouse. You would think that it would be more convenient to replace your mouse with the one provided. Unfortunately this is not the case. The mouse is not only poorly shaped, but it is also slower. A cheap Microsoft mouse will not only do everything better, it will also give you pretty red lights to look at. In the end, though, the split second that it takes to put the pen in the holder and transfer that hand to the keyboard just got me. The mouse is just a faster device in that sense. As a new way to navigate your desktop, this pen comes up a bit short.

The performance, however, justifies all costs. Let me establish something, I am not on Wacom’s payroll but will now attempt to make you drool over this product to make you realize how good this is. When a product reaches its third generation, it should have ironed all the quirks out. Although I haven’t used the previous generations, I have yet to find anything wrong with this one. Photo editing in Photoshop was a breeze. This was largely due to the pen mode. When the pen mode is switched on, everything changes. The touch sensitive area becomes a replica of your screen allowing for unparalleled precision. You can set the sensitive area to be in portrait or landscape mode. You can also limit the usable real-estate on the touch area. If you want you screen to correspond to one square inch on the tablet then you can easily do that with the configuration utility. The touch area is sensitive enough to give you the ability to trace images that are on regular paper. The brushes provided really do work well. If you are a professional designer or just a hobbyist this device will serve you well.

No Bad and No Ugly, Just the Good
We live in a time where few products deliver upon the promise of the creators. Only a few years ago technologies that are available now were only available to the upper echelon of professionals. With the Intous3, all this changes. Sure, it's not a replacement for your trusty mouse and keyboard, but it is a revolutionary step in allowing digital creativity to spread to the masses. This product really delivers in terms of quality and features. It is worth every penny even if you are just starting out. There are plenty of sizes to choose from as well as alternate models to try out. Now go buy your Wacom tablet and create!

[i] Gary Sheynkman is an extremely good looking guy who lives in Chicago and is planning on attending Kelly School Of Business for his finance degree. He enjoys talking about himself in third person as well as playing around with any digital media toys he gets his hands on![i]